Shadow's Blood
by MidnightRaith
Summary: Artemis has turned her back on her father, Sportsmaster. She's made her life's goal to destroy everything he works for. However, Green Arrow and Black Canary believe she's in over her head... AU


Chapter 1

Artemis didn't like smugglers. It didn't matter what they were trying to get into the country, whether it be drugs, information or weapons, they were all bad news. Inevitably, all of the money these particular smugglers would make would end up in the Shadows' hands. Artemis hated the League of Shadows most of all.

She'd been watching this group for a few weeks now. Normally, she'd wipe the floor with them on principle, however, once she saw who was coordinating them…. Well, she hadn't been the least bit happy and became determined to cause them financial harm as well as the already planned bodily version.

Her eyes darted over the men gathered at the docks. The girl had no idea what they actually were smuggling, but that didn't matter to her. They worked for them, so they were going down. No, instead she was looking to see all of the weapons the scum had brought with them. Mostly, it was pistols and knives. Nothing she couldn't handle, but that didn't mean she needed to just jump in without thinking.

Currently, she was hiding in the shadows of one of the shipping crates. No one could see her, but it wasn't a prime spot to take shots at the smugglers. Cautiously, she made her was to another group of dock crates. Artemis wasn't the best at stealth. She was certainly good, but she was nowhere near the level of someone like Batman. The young hero could avoid attention easily; it was just a matter of being aware of her surroundings.

She couldn't hear the men from her position, though it appeared that they were arguing amongst themselves. She couldn't help but think that typical and resisted the urge to roll her eyes at them. Instead, Artemis prepared to nock an arrow. The young vigilante chose an exploding arrow; the better to surprise her enemies. She took a breath to steady her aim and let the projectile loose. She it all in a matter of seconds and the arrow whistled to her target in the span of a few more. Overall, it took her six seconds to start her attack and Artemis made a mental note to cut that time in half for future outings.

The arrow unleashed an explosive force that belied its seemingly small tip. It sent the men flying back as the cried out in shock and pain. A few of them slammed into the surrounding shipping crates and slumped to the ground, unconscious. The rest scrambled to their feet and frantically looked around in an attempt to pinpoint their attacker.

Artemis smirked at their obvious fear. They most likely thought that Green Arrow was behind the assault. Normally, she would be irritated that people associated her busts with _those two. _However, the fear worked in her favor and since no one would fear an unknown vigilante, she wasn't going to take the time to correct them. Besides, they looked funny to her.

Quickly, she fired off a barrage of shock arrows into the chests of the men still standing and then there was nothing left of the smugglers except their incapacitated bodies. Artemis could hardly believe it was this easy.

She had planned to simply leave the scene once she had dealt with the men. However, it occurred to her that they could simply regain consciousness after she left and continue on with their work. Artemis could not let that happen. Not only would the Shadows eventually succeed with whatever their original plan was, they'd also harm someone or something in the process. It was inevitable; everything they touched withered and died. The archer knew she'd have to destroy their goods.

Cautiously, the girl made her way down to the crates the smugglers had been handling. She didn't think these were all the crates they owned, but losses were losses. There would be no way for them to profit off of destroyed materials.

The archer realized that it would be in her best interests to destroy the goods quickly, so she made her to one of the crates and peered inside. She furrowed her brow as she registered that the shipment wasn't what she expected.

Having been in this situation before, Artemis knew what usually made smuggling shipments up. Drugs, weapons, stolen technology and she even came across a crate filled with hard drives. She assumed it was information of some sort, but she never bothered to find out as she dumped it all into the bay. Those were the staples of the black market and League of Shadows. The items in the box were new to her.

Inside, she found vials filled with a mysterious liquid. They were a glowing, dirty yellow color and Artemis didn't think that the Shadows should get it any time soon, if ever. Glowing didn't tend to settle well with her.

While she knew she had to destroy the crates, Artemis had no idea how to go about it. Dumping is seemed foolish to her because she had no idea what it did. The last thing she wanted to do was stop some fish monster from destroying Star City. She snorted at the thought of having the Nottingham Duo clean up that mess, and for a moment she even considered it just to piss them off. However, the thought of the fish monster hurting others sobered her and drew the idea from her mind.

She fingered another explosive arrow thoughtfully as she considered if the vials were flammable. On one hand, an explosion would take care of her clean up job in an instant. However, on the other hand, she wasn't thrilled at the idea of blowing up the harbor and the creeps she just stomped. Artemis thought them stupid, but didn't with them dead.

Gritting her teeth, she debated with herself. Artemis considered that she could drag the men away from the crates before attempting to destroy them, but then thought it was highly possible that they could regain consciousness and overpower her. She sighed at the thought of leaving it all for the police. Many of them were corrupt and she wouldn't put it past them to sell the vials to the Shadows anyway. Maybe she—

"Who are you?" a hard, male voice demanded.

Artemis whirled around and drew an arrow back. She was furious with herself for letting someone catch her off guard and was about to rectify the situation. Then she saw who it was.

"Speedy. Shouldn't your name imply that you would get here before me?" she snarked.

The older archer's eyes narrowed into a glare and both teenagers had their bows pointed at the other.

"Cute," he deadpanned, "but I can't say I know your name."

Artemis smirked and tried to appear calm and collected, but she everything except that. She was irritated by how easy it was for the League of Shadows to operate in Star City, but that didn't mean she was looking to confront its protectors. The vigilante would have preferred to pretend that they didn't exist, but she realized that wish was pointless now.

"Artemis, goddess of archery," she smirked.

The girl figured she might as well let the sidekick know her name. No one would figure that her civilian identity shared the name and she wanted Robin Hood and Little John to know they weren't the only ones in the forest. Perhaps the idea of a young girl keeping the thugs off their turf would help them buckle down on the underground crime she was currently working herself half to death to prevent. She wouldn't mind the indirect help, though she hated thinking of herself as "the girl."

Speedy snorted, "And you think my name's ironic? Can you even use that bow?"

She dropped her teasing manner immediately as her face hardened and her stormy, grey eyes grew cold.

"Yes, I can."

Criminals always underestimated Artemis in the rare event that they saw her. However, she didn't mind when _they_ did since it always worked to her advantage. The superheroes were different. She desired the destruction of the Shadows, but ultimately wanted the same things that the more famous vigilantes worked towards. Artemis hated that Speedy wanted to disregard her simply because he hadn't heard of her. She was good and she knew it. Perhaps she needed to show him….

Her hand twitched as she entertained the thought.

"Don't even try it," Speedy snarled through his teeth.

Both were now glaring fiercely at the other; standing completely still and waiting for the other to make their move. Artemis was sure that Silly Hat wasn't going to let her leave. For some reason, the big name heroes liked to think that they were the only vigilantes out on the streets that actually had good intentions. They irritated her to no end.

"Whoa, Speedy," a new voice nearly exclaimed, "Who's your new girlfriend?"

The angry teens were startled out of their stare off and spun to face newcomer. Artemis's jaw tightened once she saw that the man was Robin Hood himself. Distantly, she wondered why Chuckles was so startled by his mentor's appearance if he's with the guy all the time.

"She's the contact, Green Arrow," Speedy spat, "I bet she turned on her sellers so she could save the Shadows some cash."

"What are you on about, Happy?" Artemis hissed, "I did your job for you, so why don't you deal with that instead of tattling?"

"Tattling?" the other young archer growled, "We know a member of the League of Shadows would be here and take this shipment. Guess who's here?" he asked rhetorically.

For his part, Green Arrow was observing the pair carefully. He knew his protégé and knew that Speedy sometimes let his emotions lead him to ill-founded conclusions. His sidekick did not like this girl and was currently attempting to think the worst of her.

What, or rather who, was the girl? Oliver Queen was no fool. Arrow was well aware that a Shadow operative would never be acting as this girl was. If she was truly the contact, then he doubted she would have attacked the smugglers. That would eliminate the Shadows a seller needlessly and would eliminate business in the long run. Also, she would not have remained at the scene if she could help it. Since Roy had caught her off guard, the girl would have attacked him rather than stay to banter.

Ollie severely doubted that the girl was affiliated with the League of Shadows.

"What do we call you?" Green Arrow interrupted the other archers' arguing.

"Artemis," she stated in a hard voice.

If the senior archer could take Artemis at her word, then that meant she most likely was not a Shadow. They hardly introduce themselves to their enemies. Not as blatantly at least. He just wasn't sure if he actually could accept her word.

"Well, Artemis, what are you doing here? If you aren't the contact, then why are you here?" he repeated.

Artemis shrugged, "Stopping a smuggling ring. It wasn't that hard to figure out what they were doing."

The last thing she wanted to do was tell the men that she specifically attacked the smugglers because they were working for the Shadows, or more specifically _him. _That would only make them curious about her past and she would not have that.

"Really?" Roy scoffed, "You could tell that these seemingly innocent dock workers were smugglers? What about your remark about how 'easy' it was to find out that the Shadows would be here?"

She cringed inwardly. The smugglers were actually dressed in dock worker uniforms and they had been unloading the crates in the exact same manner that the actual workers do. She also realized that she indeed say that she already knew the Shadows were buying whatever the vials were. Artemis cursed herself for letting her emotions get the better of her.

Oliver directed a raised eyebrow at her. It was obvious to him that there was more to this girl than a desire to save the day. She knew something and he wanted to find out what that was. He knew that he'd have to be far less confrontational than Roy, however. Apparently, this Artemis girl was defensive.

"Speedy, why don't you find out what's in the crate?" he asked jovially.

Roy glared at Ollie for a moment, but left to do as his mentor asked. Green Arrow grimaced; Roy had been complaining that he wanted to be treated as his partner only days ago. The problem was that Ollie still had trouble accepting the fact that his protégé was no longer the boy he took in two years ago. However, he could soothe Roy's pride later. For now, the girl was important.

"So, what's the story, kid?" he asked her once Roy was out of earshot. He hoped that she would be more willing to talk once he was gone.

"Artemis," she corrected irritably, "And I told you the story."

"Speedy had a point, Artemis. You already admitted that you know the Shadows would be here. How?" Ollie was trying to avoid accusing her of anything, but the girl, Artemis, was too similar to Roy; defensive and unpredictable.

Artemis looked away for a moment. How was she going to get out of this? Never would she have imagined that she was going to meet Chuckles and Robin Hood; ever. Her life was about creating hell for the Shadows and that was already hard enough. She definitely didn't need the drama of revealing any part of her past.

"I don't have to tell you anything," she said coldly, "I took out the trash, now you get to break their toys."

She turned to blend into the shadows, but Green Arrow was too fast. He grabbed her arm and attempted to keep her at the scene.

"Whoa, come on, kid. Don't be like that. I'm not about to haul you to jail, if that's what you're afraid of," Ollie attempted to placate her.

Unfortunately, he hit the nail on the head. Artemis wanted nothing to do with the life _he _had wanted for her. She wanted to end it. However, that didn't mean a Justice League drone would understand. Her biggest fear was that people would only see her pedigree, her past, and judge her accordingly. Green Arrow would never understand.

"Let go," she growled.

"I'm just trying to help. How did you know to be here," he tried again.

Ollie realized that he failed to get through to her once Artemis's face and eyes hardened completely. He had a feeling that if he hadn't gotten hold of her arm, she'd try to attack him. The hero sighed internally. There was no way she would tell him anything now, at least not willingly, but he didn't want to force her. Perhaps if he could get Roy to keep an eye on her…. He dismissed that immediately. Ollie's hope was that Artemis would calm down and he could work the information out of her. Information that, he felt, a young girl should not have. However, Roy was just as likely to cause the both of them to kill each other as he was to agree to the assignment in the first place. He realized that he would have to do it.

"Green Arrow!" Speedy suddenly called urgently.

Oliver turned his attention to his sidekick...partner. To his surprise, he saw Speedy targeting his bow at a female form. He couldn't make her features out because of the fact that she was in partial darkness. Speedy no doubt thought that the woman was the Shadow contact. Ollie thought so as well. For a moment, he considered letting his ward handle this because he didn't want to release the girl yet. However, he knew that members of the Shadows were highly dangerous and he could always track the girl down later. He released Artemis's arm and drew his bow.

"Show yourself," Roy ordered.

The woman chuckled amusedly.

"So serious," she mused, "It's endearing."

"What's that in the crates?" the girl, Artemis, demanded. Oliver was surprised that she even stayed. Then again, she apparently knew that the Shadows would be here, so he supposed that she probably had an interest in them. He didn't like that at all.

The operative's form turned towards Artemis and for a long moment, she didn't say anything. Green Arrow had no idea what to make of that.

"Now, why would I tell you that?" the Shadow asked playfully.

"Well, you aren't getting it," Speedy told her.

"We'll see."

The Shadow melted away and warning bells began to go off in Green Arrow's head.

"Speedy, stay alert. I want you to stay near me," he directed towards the girl.

"I can handle myself," she protested fiercely.

Artemis was confident that she could. She had fought a few Shadow members before this and the training that she had received from _him _had allowed her to defeat them. She figured it would help her here as well.

For several long moments, it seemed as if the operative had simply left. None of the archers believed she did, or else she wouldn't have shown herself to begin with. However, the tension was starting to get to the teens all the same.

"Do you see her?" Artemis demanded impatiently.

"If we saw her, then we would be shooting at her," Roy told her.

Artemis didn't respond, but he would bet that she was gritting her teeth. She was just too similar to Roy…. For his part, Roy appeared to be smug about causing her silence.

Suddenly, Green Arrow spotted a handful of shurikens whistling through the air towards Speedy.

Unfortunately, he didn't think his protégé would duck in time.


End file.
